Analysts have warned Windows 10 end of life plans could spark a global torrent of e-waste, with millions of devices expected to be scrapped in the coming years. 

Research from Canalys shows that up to 240 million PCs globally could be terminated as a result of the shift over to Windows 11, raising critical questions about device refreshes and the responsibility of vendors to extend life cycles.

  • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    1 year ago

    Someone should open a business taking free perfectly good laptops people were going to throw out, putting Linux on them, and reselling them.

    Goodwill could do this with anything they get donated.

    • DdCno1@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’ve seen this done. Store lasted for a bout a year, which is longer than I would have expected given the obsolete e-waste they were selling for extortionate prices. This was only a few years ago, but most of the laptops they were offering still had 4:3 displays and disc drives, that’s how ancient they were. Hell, one of them had a floppy drive.

      • Norah - She/They@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s wild. There’s a place here in Melbourne that sells refurbished Dell Optiplex’s. They’re ~8yrs old and still perfectly functional machines. For $100 you can get a full setup with a 16:9 monitor, keyboard and mouse. If you’re on unemployment they’ll sell it to you for $50 so you can look for work online.

    • agegamon@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Free Geek here in Portland OR used to do this. Might still be doing it too, but I haven’t been back there since 2018 so I’m not 100% sure.

      But yeah, the last I was there, you could walk in and just buy a refurbished laptop or desktop with Linux on it. They would even give guidance on what people needed if they weren’t tech-savvy.